Bill to limit FHSAA's power advances in Legislature

A Florida House bill that would limit the power of Florida’s governing body for high school sports moved forward in the House on Tuesday.

It will next go to the House floor for a vote. The bill, HB 1279, proposed by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, won unanimous support in the Education Committee. Its companion bill in the Senate, SB 1164, has not been heard yet, but Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, is still trying to push it forward.

If the House bill is approved then the Senate could decide to take up the House’s version on the floor.

The bill takes aim at the Florida High School Athletic Association, which represents almost 800 member schools. Metz wants more legislative oversight of the organization and also wants the FHSAA to be less stringent in its operations in terms of eligibility investigations and transfer rules.

“The current FHSAA is too quick to assume that actions by student athletes are in furtherance of cross-school recruiting,” Metz wrote in an email to the Herald-Tribune in late March. “However, students can in fact leave their current schools for perfectly legitimate reasons, including fleeing from abusive coaches, parental divorce or residential change, or because they are seeking a better academic opportunity (i.e., exercising school choice).

“The mere fact that they are also athletes should not subject them to onerous investigations as presumed cheaters, and the bill’s presumption of eligibility provision will help reverse this trend. More importantly, student athletes deserve true due process and should not be subjected to long, grueling interviews initiated with little or no supporting evidence. High school students have a limited window of eligibility and cannot get time back once lost to an overzealous investigation.”

The FHSAA has voiced dissent against the bill and executive director Roger Dearing last week said the new rules will put students “on an unfair playing field.”

Solange Reyner

Solange Reyner is the assistant sports editor at the Sarasota Herald Tribune. She can be reached at (941) 361-4861.

Last modified: April 9, 2013
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published without permissions. Links are encouraged.